The present invention relates to a knitting machine with longitudinally displaceable latch needles and sinkers also longitudinally displaceable in the same direction and also pivotable.
In the knitting machine of the foregoing type the sinkers which are of small construction length are mounted in a sinker support which is stationary relative to the needle support, and the cams for the sinkers as well as the cams for the latch needles are constructed so that the sinkers during the drawing-off motion of the respective needles are longitudinally moved in the opposite direction at least in certain regions.
It has been known that in order to facilitate the movement of the needles and sinkers in the opposite directions during the knitting of a knitware wherein the control curves for the needles and sinkers must be maintained less steep so that the machine would be able to operate faster without a danger of the needle or thread rupture. It has been already proposed in the knitting machines of the type under discussion to move the sinkers and needles in the same direction, whereby the machine with a clear loop-formation area is obtained and the sinkers are formed with the length which is small as compared to the length of the needles The sinkers should be positioned between the guiding webs to reduce wear. The above described arrangement has been disclosed in DE-OS No. 3,311,361 corresponding to U.S. pending application Ser. No. 594,771. However, with a quickly-running knitting machine in addition to the problem of intensive wear of the needles and the sinkers as well as the controlling cams, threads are subject to high loads during the loop-sinking process.